Published: 26/Sep/2015
Source: The Economist

How do you hold an election without registering voters? That is the question confronting Somali politicians—as well as hordes of diplomats, NGOs and other international hangers-on—trying to create a functional government in Somalia, a country that has been without a functioning central state apparatus since the fall of its military regime back in 1991.

Somalia has been attempting to build a government since 2007, when an African Union (AU) peacekeeping force occupied the country, after Ethiopia had invaded it a year earlier. A provisional constitution was drawn up in 2012, and Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, a former academic and aid worker, was elected president of a transitional government. The process is supposed to culminate in an election next year to create a Somali government with support across the whole country.